Indian to abandon Brake Throttle Override

Publish Date:

Aug 6, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Riders and journalists told Indian Motorcycles they didn’t like the Brake Throttle Override (BTO) system developed to prevent unintended acceleration in Indian’s ride-by-wire throttle system. Indian has now announced that it won’t be on any of the 2015 models.

Indian product director Gary Gray told Motorcycles.com that current Indian owners who wish to have the BTO disabled can take their bikes to Indian dealers to have the ECU flashed with new software.

The issue reportedly became more apparent after industry journalists experienced difficulties while testing the new Roadmasters in July.

“Although the BTO has been on all Indian models since their release last year, we first noticed its effects on a group ride at the Roadmaster’s introduction. In short, if a brake was applied for a period of time in which the throttle was also open, the system would cut in and disable the throttle, which led to…two surprising incidents,” the article noted. “Since all manual transmission motorcycles already have a foolproof means of cutting power to the rear wheel in the clutch, we were concerned that the BTO was a technological solution that had the potential to cause more problems than it would prevent.”